An apartment interior in Milan designed by Ettore Sottsass, Jr., 1960.

Illustrated in Domus, 362, 1960

Tenebre (FF no.521), 1963

The ceramics of darkness are the first ceramics designed by Sottsass as a complete cycle in terms of content. They were created as a reaction to a long illness and are artistic expression, personal statement and subject-oriented design in one. Their graphic design contains clear references to Indian symbols drawn from Tantra philosophy. These ceramics were first exhibited in 1963 in the Milan Il Sestante Gallery."

Hoger, Hans. Ettore Sottsass, Jun.

Study for Tenebre, 1963.

Offerta a Shiva, 1964

"This series is dedicated to Shiva, the Indian goddess of life and love...References to Indian symbols for female fertility can be seen in the graphic design."

-Hoger, Hans. Ettore Sottsass, Jun.

Totem (FF no. 663), Designed 1964-1965, executed 1966

Museum Collection:
Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK

Drawings of Totems, Menhir, Ziggurat, Stupas, Hydrants & Gas Pumps

Tempus Wall Cabinet, c. 1963

Laminated and stained wood, metal

68 x 25 x 11.75 inches

172.7 x 63.5 x 29.8 cm

Tantra vase (FF no. 679), 1968

"In general, the religious philosophy of Tantra is based on an analogy between the physical body, (the microcosm), and the universe, (the macrocosm)....The Tantric Ceramics of 1968 extended Sottsass's bond with Indian religious philosophy, but this time he blended it with references to Art Deco forms from the 1930s, another manifestation of his interest in positioning the past alongside the present...The Tantric piece are geometrically rooted, the ziggurat form, rediscovered in Art Deco."

-Labaco, Ettore Sottsass, Architect and Designer.

Superbox Cabinet, 1968

"Superboxes" were conceived as prototypes for exhibition, as dramatic statements stimulating debate about the social and philosophical functions of design.

Fumo (FF no. 739), 1969

"Manufactured by Bitossi, the vases show their 'emotion' in their form. Turned from red clay, they are medium-to-large in size and feature no decoration, just colors of varying types of 'dense smoke,' for a total of 23 vases representing different types of smoke."

-Ettore Sottsass, Ceramics, Hentjens Museum, Dusseldorf.

Yantra (FF no.777), 1969

"Sottsass refers directly to Indian culture in the culture in the Tantra and Yantra ceramic series. While the Tantra ceramics represent a largely independent interpretation of a philosophical scheme (the reversibility of the vessels refers to the central theme of the exchange of human and cosmic energy), the Yantra ceramics take up relevant symbols of the Indian origin and process them in a new way."

Hoger, Hans. Ettore Sottsass, Jun.

"Valentine" Typewriter, 1969

An example of this work belongs to the permanent collection of the Design Museum in Ghent, Belgium.

"Aware of all the commitment of open-minded but rigorous design"...[Ettore Sottsas] transformed the Valentine typewriter for use at "any place except in an office, so as not to remind anyone of monotonous working hours, but rather to keep amateur poets company on quiet Sundays in the country or to provide a highly colored object on a table in a studio apartment."

Prototype for Vase (variante rossa e bianca) (FF no. 427), 1966

Ceramic

14.75 x 6.25 inches

37.5 x 16 cm

Signed: Il Sestante, Sottsass, 608, Ok, X

Vetrinetta di Famiglia Cabinet, 1979

An example of this work belongs to the permanent collection of the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France.

"Among the 'bau-haus' collection designed under the direction of Studio Alchimia, Svincolo floor lamp points to the development that would reach its breakthrough point with Memphis, a design movement rich in visual stimuli that laid the foundation for new means to encounter the designed environment."

Hans Hoger, Ettore Sottsass, Jun.

'Le Strutture Tremano' side table, 1979

"Among the 'bau-haus' collection designed under the direction of Studio Alchimia, Le Strutture Tremano side table points to the development that would reach its breakthrough point with Memphis, a design movement rich in visual stimuli that laid the foundation for new means to encounter the designed environment."

Hans Hoger, Ettore Sottsass, Jun.

Flying Carpet Couch, 1974

Stained Beechwood, stretch-jersey fabric, velvet, carpeting

23.375 x 85 x 42 inches

59.4 x 215.9 x 106.7 cm

Lapislazzuli (FF no. 803), 1972

Glazed ceramic

7.75 x 6.75 x 7.5 inches

20 x 17 x 19 cm

Svincolo, 1979

"Among the 'bau-haus' collection designed under the direction of Studio Alchimia, Svincolo floor lamp points to the development that would reach its breakthrough point with Memphis, a design movement rich in visual stimuli that laid the foundation for new means to encounter the designed environment."

“I have tried as best as I can to gather together the terms of a new vitality and, where and how I was able, to collect the shapes, colours and symbols that could represent the change in the images of this century from an intellectual organization to a reality that must be lived, to a kind of pure and vital energy.“

-- Ettore Sottsass, Domus Magazine, 1963

One of the most significant counter-forces to modernism in design history, Ettore Sottsass made monumental artistic contributions to every decade of his working life since starting his practice in the late 1940’s. His career produced a provocative body of work, including architecture, furniture, industrial design, glass, ceramics, painting, photography and a wealth of writings.

For Sottsass, creating a lexicon of design that incorporated emotive, sensorial and humanist concerns was a rebellion against post-war rationalist architecture that valued function over form, and left human nature largely out of the architectural equation. He was moved by the subjective gesture of American Abstract Expressionist painting and the direct resonance of Pop Art. He also looked to ancient eastern cultures for examples of how to create a spiritual connection between form and meaning. A central concern of much of Sottsass’ work is the social, cultural and technical implications of architecture and design on the way people live and interact. Always counterintuitive and built on complex thought-patterns, the notion that a functional object could communicate an abstract idea was revolutionary and has emboldened legions of designers today.